The only thing I don't like about this is that you have to make a purchase to play online. We picked up the Master Set a few months ago so I haven't even had a chance to play Phoenix Elves before which I was hoping to play online for a bit before grabbing everything else. In fact, I don't think any of the Master Class factions are in the iOS version right now.

Yes. On the "choose faction" screen, there's a little circular icon that looks like the outline of a person. That's for human control. Tap on it once and it should turn into a gear-looking thing. That's the AI.

For me Summoner Wars solves the problems I have with lots of miniatures games. Something like Warmachine and Hordes, I love all the factions. To build a playable force for a faction I'm spending around $150-300 per faction, and that is for once force that I can't make changes too. Since there are 12+ factions in that game, it isn't feasible for me to build multiple lists for each faction I like.

Summoner Wars however scratches a similar itch, but I can own everything and try different strategies for multiple factions for less than a single non-changing army in an actual miniatures game.

Played it tons back in the day. Falls short for me of Summoner Wars in every way. Over the last few months SW has become my single favorite tabletop game ever, of any genre. Battleground is pretty neat, but the fire and forget aspect of the units didn't quite clickw ith me.

So there seems to be two ways for a Summoner or Champion to attack, but NONE of this is explained in the tutorial or rulebook as far as I can tell. There is the normal attack (melee or ranged), and then possibly the special ability, and I've triggered the wrong ability quite a few times. What's the deal, yo?

Played it tons back in the day. Falls short for me of Summoner Wars in every way. Over the last few months SW has become my single favorite tabletop game ever, of any genre. Battleground is pretty neat, but the fire and forget aspect of the units didn't quite clickw ith me.

Yeah, YMG was my gamestore back in the day when they were making Battlegrounds. THe problem is, it tries to be a minis game (effectively) but looses ALL of what makes a minis game fun (grandeur, spectactle), while adding nothing all that interesting that you could get by not being a minis game (variety, choices).

SixteenBlue: don't forget to mimic other units with Vlox! That's his biggest strength. As an example: have him mimic a Scrapper, then when a Scrapper during that turn smacks something on the other side of the board, Vlox can move as though he's a Scrapper, have him mimic Violet, he gets her attack (goes through things) and so on.

SixteenBlue: don't forget to mimic other units with Vlox! That's his biggest strength. As an example: have him mimic a Scrapper, then when a Scrapper during that turn smacks something on the other side of the board, Vlox can move as though he's a Scrapper, have him mimic Violet, he gets her attack (goes through things) and so on.

SixteenBlue: don't forget to mimic other units with Vlox! That's his biggest strength. As an example: have him mimic a Scrapper, then when a Scrapper during that turn smacks something on the other side of the board, Vlox can move as though he's a Scrapper, have him mimic Violet, he gets her attack (goes through things) and so on.

I got lucky and got both of my walls in the second hand, which allowed me to create a fortress on the left side of the board. I also managed to get Archangel and Kalon out early as well. Archangel gets +1 movement, and can move through units, but cannot stop on a unit, 2 die attack. Kalon has 8 life, starts with a 2 die attack, but jumps to 4 die when at half life. I subbed out Rachael Loveguard for Coleen Brighton since she makes it 4+ on the die for a successful hit for Commons, rather than a 3+.

So, with both Archangel and Kalon out, I pushed pretty hard. SixteenBlue created a one lane movement path in the middle, which left a one lane straightaway on the far right. I was jumping all over with Archangel, and I almost paid for it and had to retreat to get healed by my Summoner. I kept Kalon up front, though he didn't hit the magic number until the 2nd to last turn, and by then I had Vlox, SixteenBlue's summoner backed into a corner, and down to 2 life. Kalon hit for 2 or 3 and it was game over.

Cloaks are a tricksy faction to play. I'll freely admit, I suck with them. About the only thing I know is , have Vlox copy like a madman.

Vanguards are defense oriented, and have some of the best healing out there. Fits better with my mindset.

The interface takes some getting used to. The biggest thing I got stuck on was: left side for normal, right side for special ability. Once I got that down, the interface got a lot clearer for me. From there, it was finding a faction I liked, and that sat well. I'm looking for a second faction right now, but I've pretty well settled on the Vanguard for my main.

Natus: what else would you like to know? I'm pretty new to Summoner Wars, but I'll answer what I can.

I believe I faced you as the Cloaks, me as the Vanguard, thejustinbot: Is raptorordinance your GC name?

It is. I counted up and I've played that match-up five times today.

Since this is a Summoner Wars catch all, I'll mention I played the tabletop game last night with a friend who is notorious for making games last forever. In a battle between the Cloaks and the Deep Dwarves from the Master Set he managed to turn what is usually at the most a 45 minute game into an almost two hour game. Ended up our Summoners fighting with one health left each, he rolled two dice and got double ones. Next turn I attacked with two dice, got a one and a five and finally ended it.

I believe I faced you as the Cloaks, me as the Vanguard, thejustinbot: Is raptorordinance your GC name?

It is. I counted up and I've played that match-up five times today.

Since this is a Summoner Wars catch all, I'll mention I played the tabletop game last night with a friend who is notorious for making games last forever. In a battle between the Cloaks and the Deep Dwarves from the Master Set he managed to turn what is usually at the most a 45 minute game into an almost two hour game. Ended up our Summoners fighting with one health left each, he rolled two dice and got double ones. Next turn I attacked with two dice, got a one and a five and finally ended it.

The one day I got to play the physical version, I got to play the Mountain Vargath and the Benders. Both were very interesting, though I sucked with the Benders. I'm looking for a Mountain Vargath analog right now.

Yeah, the Vargath are my go to faction in the pulp version. With the Mercenaries and Shadow Elves close behind. The closest analog with what is in the app right now is probably the Tundra Orcs, though that isn't a perfect comparison.

So far the jungle elves are my go to faction. They seems to work well with an aggressive strategy, as they have pretty good attack values and some nice movement powers, but not great health. They also feel less dependent on champions than some of the other factions, but that could just be because I don't quite get the other factions as well. If I can get some time in single player to test things out I want to try adding either dwarves or orcs as a second choice.

What is the worst luck anyone has had? I missed on 8 attack dice in a row in a game yesterday, that was rather unpleasant.

I believe I faced you as the Cloaks, me as the Vanguard, thejustinbot: Is raptorordinance your GC name?

It is. I counted up and I've played that match-up five times today.

Since this is a Summoner Wars catch all, I'll mention I played the tabletop game last night with a friend who is notorious for making games last forever. In a battle between the Cloaks and the Deep Dwarves from the Master Set he managed to turn what is usually at the most a 45 minute game into an almost two hour game. Ended up our Summoners fighting with one health left each, he rolled two dice and got double ones. Next turn I attacked with two dice, got a one and a five and finally ended it.

I've actually shelved the game for this reason. My main playing partner is especially prone to AP (analysis paralysis) and our SW games have been known to last over two hours. That's tough to swallow as it is, but in our last several games the dice have been so disparate that they've stolen games away from me and the cranky factor has gone through the roof. The Dude does NOT abide.

How many race decks are still unaccounted for on iOS? It sounds like there are 5-10 more to be rolled out.

Six, as far as I know. They all came with the "Master Set," so they might see release later on as a second bundle.

• Play as the Shadow Elves and conceal your plans in swirling darkness!
• Choose the Benders and confound your foe, turning his own troops against him!
• Command the Vargath, mountainous goatfolk who call lightning from the heavens!
• Select the nefarious Sand Goblins and delight in malicious trickery!
• Muster the Deep Dwarves and control the forces of Geomancy!
• Lead the ferocious Swamp Orcs to war and hack upon your foes as they are snared in your vines!

The six from the Master Set and then the two most recent faction decks, Filth and Mercenaries, aren't on the app yet. The online play is fantastic though. Usually at game nights we end up playing minis games or a board game for more than two people so getting to play Summoner Wars regularly has been hard. Now it is easy!

While I'm not bothered by the randomness in these kinds of games (20 years of playing Magic: the Gathering will harden you to it), I understand why some people can be. I always think that these kind of games might be better off using the same kind of dice deck that Settlers of Catan does for its iOS app. Here you have 36 cards that represent all the possible combination of two d6. Instead of rolling the dice each turn you just reveal the top card. Just using the basic deck will mean that the correct proportion of rolls will appear throughout the game. The weakness is that if you are really anal about it you could predict the upcoming rolls. Thats why a nice method is to randomly remove a couple of the cards before hand, so there is still some minor randomization thrown in.

Huh. So that's what Battlegrounds is. I think Pandemonium still carries some of that in their store.

SommerMatt wrote:

• Lead the ferocious Swamp Orcs to war and hack upon your foes as they are snared in your vines!

I could see the Swamp Orcs being a little more of a pain to code than some of the other factions. But I think the Master Set was a later release so it seems like they're holding to that schedule for some reason.

SommerMatt wrote:

I had zero hits, the AI hit on 90% of its attacks.

Demyx and I have run into that on occasion playing the physical game. I think any dice game we have tends to spite us...

mana screw used to piss me off mightily too, but at least with Magic if you get steamrolled the games are short. I'm okay with dice luck in games but the longer and meatier the games are, the more I hope for ways to mitigate the dice luck or have some control over how hurt I am by them.